Festival: Martinstag (St Martin's Day)

Date: 11 November

Martinstag is celebrated in many parts of Germany and Austria, as well as in some areas of Belgium and the Netherlands, on 11 November. Children process through the streets with homemade paper lanterns and sing traditional songs; the procession is often fronted by a man on a white horse dressed as St Martin.

The festivities normally end with a bonfire, after which children go singing from door to door in return for sweets- much like the Halloween tradition of trick or treating.

Who was St Martin?

St Martin is one of the most revered European saints. It is understood that he was a kind and humble man who famously, as a soldier in the Roman army, cut his cloak in two during a snowstorm to prevent a beggar from freezing.

His good deeds and compassion towards others led to his appointment, by popular demand, as the Bishop of Tours; however, he felt so humbled by the news that he hid himself in a barn full of geese; unsurprisingly, they soon gave him away. This is, however, the reason why goose or die Martinsgans is the dish most commonly eaten on St Martin's day.

Celebrations around the world

St Martin's Day, although a Catholic tradition, is celebrated in Protestant parts of Germany where these celebrations are sometimes combined with those of Tauftag Martin Luthers, the commemoration of the christening of Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer.

St Martin's day is also a feast day in many countries; Sweden and Hungary also eat goose on 11 November, while elsewhere a feast traditionally marks the maturation of the year's wine and livestock, as well as the end of preparations for winter.